Votes this week could be good or bad for Garden Parkway

Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 04:13 PM.

A vote today from the House Appropriations Committee, followed by the full House later in the week, could further determine whether the embattled, proposed toll road ever comes to fruition.

House Bill 817 would uphold the parkway as a clearly defined and authorized project, with designated funding to pay the nearly $1 billion tab of construction. But legislators who oppose that measure would prefer to throw the toll road back into the mix with other transportation projects, forcing it to compete for limited dollars and decreasing its chances of ever being built.

Groups on both sides of the aisle have been gearing up for this week’s House debate. The Gaston Regional Chamber contends the parkway will create jobs and connectivity to Charlotte that will be critical to the region’s growth over the next 30 to 40 years.

“I think it’s a pretty big deal,” said Gaston Regional Chamber Chairman Joel Long, speaking of the upcoming vote. “I think it’s more of a life thing than a death thing. It’s probably a bigger deal if (the bill) passes and the parkway continues to be a named road (with funding).”

Rep. Dana Bumgardner, R-Gaston, opposes the project and hopes to deal it another blow, adding to its long list of recent setbacks.

“The voters that helped me get here sent me here to say they don’t want the Garden Parkway,” he said Monday. “And I have not changed my position on it.”

A vote today from the House Appropriations Committee, followed by the full House later in the week, could further determine whether the embattled, proposed toll road ever comes to fruition.

House Bill 817 would uphold the parkway as a clearly defined and authorized project, with designated funding to pay the nearly $1 billion tab of construction. But legislators who oppose that measure would prefer to throw the toll road back into the mix with other transportation projects, forcing it to compete for limited dollars and decreasing its chances of ever being built.

Groups on both sides of the aisle have been gearing up for this week’s House debate. The Gaston Regional Chamber contends the parkway will create jobs and connectivity to Charlotte that will be critical to the region’s growth over the next 30 to 40 years.

“I think it’s a pretty big deal,” said Gaston Regional Chamber Chairman Joel Long, speaking of the upcoming vote. “I think it’s more of a life thing than a death thing. It’s probably a bigger deal if (the bill) passes and the parkway continues to be a named road (with funding).”

Rep. Dana Bumgardner, R-Gaston, opposes the project and hopes to deal it another blow, adding to its long list of recent setbacks.

“The voters that helped me get here sent me here to say they don’t want the Garden Parkway,” he said Monday. “And I have not changed my position on it.”

Whatever the House ultimately proposes must be balanced against the Senate’s transportation spending plan. Gov. Pat McCrory will have the final say, and he so far has favored the Senate proposal, which would likely not allow the parkway to retain its dedicated funding.

Lobbying for support

This week’s debate stems from McCrory’s proposal to change the way transportation improvements are funded in North Carolina. He wants to distribute the vast majority of highway funding to projects that can use data to demonstrate the economic benefits they will provide.

The question is whether two proposed toll projects — the Garden Parkway, and the Cape Fear Skyway bridge on the Outer Banks — should be held above that competition.

Since the parkway was first promised funding several years ago, it has been in a downward spiral. After environmental groups sued to stop construction last year, Department of Transportation leaders withdrew their applications for permits, leaving the project in limbo.

Local voters who oppose the road have elected new lawmakers to speak for them. Republican Rep. John Torbett is the only one of five state legislators from Gaston County who still supports the parkway in any form.

“John’s fighting for it,” Long said.

Without the ears of local legislators, the Gaston Regional Chamber this year resorted to hiring a lobbyist and public relations firm to defend its interests. McGuireWoods Consulting in Raleigh has been filling that role.

Long declined to say what the chamber is paying the firm, but said it’s money well spent.

“It takes a lot of work and most of us involved are business people trying to run our own businesses,” he said. “We can’t be in Raleigh every day.”

The fight continues

Long believes the parkway is about providing Gaston County with opportunity — for local businesses, for local residents in the form of new jobs, and for a more prosperous future.

Since the parkway was first discussed in the 1980s as a way of providing another crossing over the Catawba River, the Charlotte region has grown in every direction but Gaston County’s, Long said.

“The facts are our unemployment is higher than every other county in the region. Our job growth seems to lag,” he said. “We need more jobs and more people living here. I think at the simplest level, that’s what this is about.”

But the parkway has greater regional value because of the connection it will provide to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Long said. Upward of 500 trucks per day would likely use the toll road to reach the airport’s new intermodal facility, which is opening soon.

“We’re just trying to get the word out across the state because we think this has huge significance as a regional project, not just a Gaston County project,” he said.

Bumgardner and other opponents remain undeterred. They feel the road would be a waste of $1 billion, and that the rosy projections of job growth are shaky.

“It’s an important issue,” he said. “Gaston County’s voters are looking for some closure on it one way or another. I’m trying to help that along.”

Even if the House were to propose funding the Garden Parkway and Cape Fear Skyway this week, Bumgardner said he doubts they will make it into the final bill the governor signs.

“The heat’s been turned up here lately,” he said. “But I think they’re going to be taken out of the statute ultimately.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.